Talonflame is a fire/flying type. Just like another Pokemon people in the competative workd seem to hate, Charizard. Talonflame has the same Stealth Rock weakness so... why do people love it? I used Talonflame in my Pokemon X runthrough and it was okay, but why dont I see anyone hating it?! I dont hate Talonflame, but I am confused about this. Why the double standard Pokemon Fans?

3 Answers

3 votes

Pokemon fans love Charizard though. :D

Anyways, typing is just one characteristic of a Pokemon. When looking at a good competitive Pokemon, you take all things into consideration. Look at Volcarona, an OU Pokemon because it is in a solid speed tier, has nice offenses, a decent movepool, and access to Quiver Dance. Ho-oh in Uber because of stats, ability, and movepool. Non-Mega Charizard just doesn't have the stats or the movepool to really pull off any sweeps, and when you compound that with poor typing, that's when you have a problem. Granted, Charizard is still a beast in NU.

What Talonflame has is access to priority Flying type attacks. This means priority Roost, Acrobatics, and Brave Bird. Acrobatics and Brave Bird have high base power, and after a Swords Dance, Talonflame can deal a lot of damage. It's fairly difficult to stop actually. This trait alone makes Talonflame worthy of some consideration, although when everything dies down, it's probably going to be a safe bet that Talonflame ends up in RU.

Heyup trachy, 99 % of the Gen VI Pokémon will be deemed RU for you :) ?
Frankly, I do not believe so. For example, Talonflame, I find it actually too huge to be RU, it maybe UU, it can counter Jirachi well, and ... um ... It devastate near everything in RU but Aggron. So... well, you see... That's my judgement.

All Rock types basically take no damage from it and can in turn destroy it. RU can handle it just fine, as it has plenty of Rock types who are quite viable in the tier, especially Kabutops. It does have Steel Wing, granted, but Rocks have high defense. Can't say if it is high enough, since the SMOGON DAMAGE CALCULATOR DOESN'T HAVE STEEL WING, but even if it isn't, Kabutops, Omastar, and Barbaracle still resist its main STAB and are neutral to Steel Wing, while using Steel Wing also uses up the Roost moveslot, which greatly reduces Talonflame's lasting power.

Personally I think it'll be either a good RU sweeper or a disappointing alternative to Scarf Victini in UU. Granted, it can sweep full teams, but it dies extremely quickly due to Flare Blitz recoil and a Stealth Rock weakness.

I'm still going to use Taunt + Swords Dance Talonflame in OU if Smeargle holds on to its popularity this Gen though.

OK, I actually believe that Talonflame is not actually a simple useless weak to SR Fire / Flying Pokémon. It gets Gale Wings which actually means priority Brave Bird + Roost. It gets Flare Blitz as well, and has a huge Speed with a decent attack, awesome when combined with a Choice Band. It gets Steel Wing, which not only hits hard Fairies, but also covers the Rock Weakness. Some sun support may help it to actually make a correct use of Solar Beam, although this will be rare, for covering the water weakness. Electric Weakness remains. Perhaps E-Quake on a double?
Monstrous power from Hippowdon, immunity from Talonflame, so attack the 2 Electric foes and demolish them.

people like it so much because of its ability gale wings which gives flying moves priority. His max speed is 386 so he is already fast. most people use acrobatics with flying gem on talonflame. acrobatics does 55 damage but with no item it does 110 damage and after you hit with the flying gem then every time you do acrobatics itll still go first and do 110 damage